A novel extra-broadband visible-emitting garnet phosphor for efficient single-component pc-WLEDs†

The development of extra-broadband visible emission phosphors is crucial to achieve next-generation illumination with better color experience. Herein, a defect engineering strategy mediated by the structural cationic substitution is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for specific ultra-broadband emission in a garnet phosphor. The induced oxygen vacancies and interstitial cation through lattice distortion break the periodic potential field of the crystal and provide electronic levels in the band gap. As a result, excited by blue-light-emitting diodes, the novel Y₃Sc₂Al₃O₁₂:B³⁺ shows an ultra-broad emission with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ∼170 nm. Compared to general defect-emitting phosphors, the unique Y₃Sc₂Al₃O₁₂:B³⁺ exhibits excellent thermal quenching resistance and superior internal quantum efficiency of up to 95%. These findings not only show great promise of Y₃Sc₂Al₃O₁₂:B³⁺ as an extra-broadband emitter but also provide a new design strategy to achieve a full-visible-spectrum phosphor in a single-component material for white-light applications.